


Fire on Fire

by furidojasutin



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Fire on fire, Fluff, Laxus just loves Freed very much, Love, M/M, Realization, bad memories, inner monologue, stubborn Freed, theyre so wholesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furidojasutin/pseuds/furidojasutin
Summary: Thoughts disturb Laxus' night sleep, so he decides to get up.
Relationships: Laxus Dreyar/Freed Justine
Comments: 1
Kudos: 63





	Fire on Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This was pretty much inspired by the song 'Fire on Fire' by Sam Smith! Go listen to it fellas, you won't regret it! It gave me lots of feels anyway.

_My father said I’m too romantic  
He said, “You’re dancing in the movies”  
I almost started to believe him  
Then I saw you and I knew_

Laxus thought about his childhood and teenage years more often than he would like to admit to himself or anybody else, really. He thought about how it could have been a nearly perfect childhood, how he could’ve been as happy as a kid could be, keep doing stuff that normal kids do and be excited about the smallest things, carrying the people along with his own excitement.

He’d had all of this at some point, with his grandfather. He may have been a sickly child but he was still not miserable. There had really been a time where he could be careless and happy and simple and pure. It was all thanks to Makarov. His mother couldn’t be there for him, although he refused to believe that she would have been anything else but an amazing mother. So it was Gramps and him. He was happy to have him.

And then there was his father who took everything from him, everything.

His innocence, his happiness, his kindness, his bond with his grandfather.

It was cruel, it was pain, it was brainwashing and false beliefs. That bastard of a father had managed to ruin so much of his life, such a big part. And the worst is, that Laxus almost lost himself entirely to it, and other people that were actually dear to him. Very dear.

Like his grandfather.

Laxus clicked his tongue in disdain. At times he tried to tell himself that, at the end of it all, Ivan just made him stronger. He wasn’t saying that he was grateful for anything Ivan put him through, it was disgusting, but he had made his body and his mind much stronger. Hatred was a bad motive to follow, but somehow it had worked out and now he could throw everything back at this fucker. He was older and he was powerful, so much more powerful than him now.

Yes, Laxus had fucked up a lot along the way, and that was an understatement. It had taken a long time until he had gotten back onto the _right_ path… But he had found it now.

Somehow he had managed to get caught in those kind of thoughts in the middle of the night. That, and when he kept stirring in his sleep restlessly and eventually woke up, he noticed that the place beside him was empty. It wasn’t supposed to be empty.

His instincts, and some prior knowledge, had led him to the living room. He immediately spotted a messy head of green hair and… was that a light snore? Laxus’ lips formed a lopsided grin at that discovery. He would have something to tease Freed with the next morning.

“Stubborn idiot, told him that he was gonna fall asleep,” he muttered, strictly as though Freed could hear him. There was a soft touch in his deep and usually rough voice and the rune mage didn’t move, didn’t give any sign that he had heard Laxus talk.

He wasn’t only older and more powerful. Eventually he had realized that there was something that was just as important as the power to protect the people he cared for. He had gained something back that he had lost a long time ago.

His happiness.

He didn’t want to claim that his soul was entirely at peace. Was that ever the case for anybody anyway? But it was definitely more at peace in certain moments, in certain company.

His exile had given him more than enough time to think a lot of things through and reflect on moments, on events, on people. His grandfather was with him again. The guild had his support and he had theirs, and their trust, what was still a big miracle to him. Evergreen and Bixlow were the best friends he could have ever hoped for, and so was Freed.

Freed had always been… a little different. For so long, Laxus had failed to realize this. For so long, he had been blind to Freed’s feelings for him and the feelings he had harbored and closed off in his own shadowed heart.

_Maybe it’s ‘cause I got a little bit older  
Maybe it’s all that I’ve been through  
I’d like to think it’s how you lean on my shoulder  
And how I see myself with you_

Soft-footed, Laxus approached the couch and looked down at his sleeping boyfriend. Somehow, the messy hair managed it to make Freed look a different kind of handsome although the image almost got destroyed by the slightly parted lips and the little snore.

Laxus shook his head, a loving touch in orange eyes that was reserved for Freed only. Red gale-force reading glasses were still sitting on Freed’s nose, position far from perfect. A book was resting on the sleeping man’s stomach. His right arm was sprawled across it and his left was dangling from the couch. So so fast asleep.

This image was not objectively perfect, but it was to Laxus. It was also a bit amusing, but Freed still looked peaceful. He deserved to have a sound, steady sleep without nightmares disturbing it, too. Freed’s had dark aspects in his past as well and he had also been right there when Laxus tried to take over the guild. It had been so fucking stupid. They had hurt their family, tortured and almost killed.

There was so much to be grateful for and in these times, good bonds and peace definitely belonged to those things.

They were safe here and alive and that really wasn’t something either of them still took for granted. So many things had happened in the past and so many dangerous things could still happen in the future.

There were still a lot of things Laxus was learning but he appreciated every single moment Freed and him got together. This, _this_ was peace.

Sometimes Laxus only had to look at Freed to be overwhelmed with feelings. There was so much he hadn’t realized before, about Freed and about himself. Whether it was the sound of Freed’s hearty laugh or how he himself had learned to laugh more genuinely again. The sight of Freed’s smirk, teasing or cocky or bursting with confidence. How he could relax so much easier when it was only the two of them. How Freed soothed his nerves and seemed to know just what to say. The way he was always there by his side, no matter the circumstances. How he had never shied away from talking back against him when he was doing or saying bullshit. How he was a great sparring partner and best friend and lover all in one person.

How he loved him unconditionally.

And how Laxus realized that his love for him was just as strong, and that he had suddenly begun to feel like they could do everything and anything together.

Perhaps he had only woken up so his restless thoughts could take him here, to their living room, so he could look at Freed and feel at ease. Feel how the nature of his thoughts turned to something positive, instead of focusing on the negative things of his past.

_I don’t say a word  
But still, you take my breath and steal the things I know  
There you go, saving me from out of the cold_

If he picked Freed up now he risked waking him up. If he managed to carry him to their bedroom without waking him, then the Freed would either thank him in the morning or he would be stubborn and try to make Laxus believe that he only dreamed that and that he had been in bed all night, just to approach him later and thank him after all.

Laxus huffed at the thought and decided that he didn’t want to risk rousing Freed from his sleep, at least not by carrying him. He started with the reading glasses, stealing them from Freed’s nose with caution. The man only crinkled his nose slightly, but nothing else. Carefully, he sneaked the book away from under Freed’s arm and put it on the table. He continued to pick up the scattered papers and the dropped pen, then he grabbed the empty mug that had contained a steaming cup of tea hours prior and brought it to the kitchen. When he returned, he snatched a blanket from the arm chair and covered his boyfriend with it. For a moment he thought that Freed had muttered something but even if that was the case, he couldn’t understand it.

His decision was made and Laxus planted himself in the arm chair right next to their big couch. He couldn’t sleep right now anyway and perhaps Freed would wake up by himself. Then he would not only have caught Freed in the act but he could also go back to bed together with him. A double win, if you will.

For the longest time, he had lost the belief that anybody could ever made him feel the way Freed did. Holding Freed in his arms, having Freed hold him, it made him feel warm from the outside. And he made him feel warm on the inside. Being with him had somehow lit a flame within him that never ceased burning, instead it seemed to grow stronger with every experience, every day, every moment he spent with the man and every meaningful past experience he recalled.

Freed managed to make him feel breathless and out of control and helpless in the most wonderful ways possible, and he had never even assumed that these feelings could ever be wonderful.

They could. Freed made it happen.

Freed was capable of so many things Laxus had assumed impossible. Freed was powerful, intelligent, attractive… and those were only the most superficial, the most obvious attributes. There were so many aspects and sides of Freed as a person, and some that not everybody would get to experience, to see.

Some that were exclusive to Laxus now and this was a feeling that he held onto because he still couldn’t fathom what he had done to deserve this twist of fate, to earn this love from Freed.

But he knew that he didn’t want to screw this up, that he didn’t want to lose this. That he didn’t want to lose Freed.

When he looked at Freed, Laxus saw his partner. They were a perfect team and no enemy would ever stand a chance against their storm. When he looked at Freed, he saw his friend who would be honest with him and who he could be careless around.

When he looked at Freed, he saw the very man that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

In thrall to his thoughts and the emotions they brought forward, Laxus had to give a silent laugh. It was an attempt to stop his eyes from watering and he had to sniff hard, dragging the back of his hand across his face before looking at his sleeping boyfriend once more, whispering.

“Fuck, I love you, Freed.”

_Fire on fire would normally kill us  
With this much desire, together, we’re winners  
They say that we’re out of control and some say we’re sinners  
But don’t let them ruin our beautiful rhythms  
'Cause when you unfold me and tell me you love me  
And look in my eyes  
You are perfection, my only direction  
_

_**It’s fire on fire** _


End file.
